Friday, September 30, 2011

Van Jones Warns Of A Progressive "October Offensive" Against Tea Party

Holy Schnikes!

Can you imagine?

Van Jones, president of the progressive organization Rebuild the Dream, joins The Last Word to discuss what Washington should be doing about jobs. Jones calls the US’ deficit problem “phony” and made up.

“Hold on to your hats, we’re going to have an October offensive to take back the American dream and rescue America’s middle class,” Jones told MSNBC’s “The Last Word.”

Jones warns of an “American Fall” like there was an Arab Spring.

Jones was President Obama’s “green jobs czar” until he resigned in fall of 2009. Transcript below:

Van Jones: “We are going to build a progressive counterbalance to the tea party. Eighty percent of Americans agree with everything that you say on this show, but we have no voice. We know that jobs are more important, and this phony, made-up deficit stuff they talk about. We know that people who have done well in America should do well by America and start paying America back in the form of more fair taxes.

“People who benefited from the bailouts and from the tax breaks should start paying America back. They’re doing great.

“Everybody else is suffering. That is 80 percent of the majority. And we’re going to now have a voice.

“And you’re going to see an American fall, an American autumn, just like we saw the Arab spring. You can see it right now with these young people on Wall Street. Hold onto your hats. We’re going to have an October offensive to take back the American dream and to rescue America’s middle class.”

Rescue the middle class?

I thought your kind referred to them as the “bourgeoisie”, or “little Eichmann’s”.

Obama won't run so he can avoid becoming the new Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter has never been held up as a thought-leader on the left, despite being drummed out of office at the relatively young age of 56. He's had 30 years to be the left's go-to guy for policy ideas. Instead, he is irrelevant. His irrelevance is directly tied to his landslide defeat in the 1980 election. Obama's ego couldn't handle that sort of defeat.Source: Obama Fail Blog

And now, Dick Morris - who is more politically astute than most pundits, in my opinion - is starting to think it may happen:

In an interview with conservative radio icon Sean Hannity, former President Clinton adviser and campaign manager Dick Morris stated that, after speaking with a Democratic strategist, he thinks it is “very possible” that President Obama might acquiesce to requests from the Democratic leadership in Congress and bow out of the 2012 race, leaving the door open for him to return sometime in the future.

“I asked a top Democratic strategist the other day and he thought that it was possible that, in January, Harry Reid comes to Obama and says, ‘Look you cost us control of the House last year, you’re going to cost us control of the Senate this year. For the good of the party you have to step aside’” said Morris.Source: CNS News

BOOM!

Senior Al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki was killed in Yemen early Friday morning by a CIA-led U.S. drone strike, marking the highest-profile takedown of a terror leader since the raid on Usama bin Laden's compound.

Fox News has learned that two Predator drones hovering above al-Awlaki's convoy fired the Hellfire missiles which killed the terror leader. According to a senior U.S. official, the operation was carried out by Joint Special Operations Command, under the direction of the CIA.

"AQAP has lost its ideological leader, which is a huge blow," a former intelligence official who has tracked al-Awlaki for years told Fox News.

Al-Awlaki was a U.S.-born Islamic militant cleric who became a prominent figure with Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the network's most active branch. He was involved in several terror plots in the United States in recent years, using his fluent English and Internet savvy to draw recruits to carry out attacks. President Obama signed an order in early 2010 making him the first American to be placed on the "kill or capture" list.

The Yemeni government and Defense Ministry announced al-Awlaki's death, without giving details. But American sources confirmed the CIA and U.S. military were behind the strike on al-Awlaki, whom one official described as a "big fish."

The strike hit a vehicle with three or four suspected Al Qaeda members inside, in addition to al-Awlaki. The strike comes after a heavy presence of U.S. drones was spotted in the skies over the region over the last couple weeks, one source told Fox News.

The strike underscores the expanding nature of the drone program, which has migrated beyond the borders of Pakistan into Yemen, Somalia and other countries.

Yemeni security officials and local tribal leaders also said al-Awlaki was killed in an air strike on his convoy that they believed was carried out by the Americans.

Al-Awlaki would be the most prominent Al Qaeda figure to be killed since bin Laden's death in a U.S. raid in Pakistan in May. In July, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the Yemeni-American was a priority target alongside Ayman al-Zawahri, bin Laden's successor as the terror network's leader.

The 40-year-old al-Awlaki had been in the U.S. crosshairs since his killing was approved by President Obama in April 2010 -- making him the first American placed on the CIA "kill or capture" list. At least twice, airstrikes were called in on locations in Yemen where al-Awlaki was suspected of being, but he wasn't harmed. In May, U.S. forces were able to track his truck but were unable to take him out.

Al-Awlaki, born in New Mexico to Yemeni parents, was believed to be key in turning Al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen into what American officials have called the most significant and immediate threat to the Untied States. The branch, led by a Yemeni militant named Nasser al-Wahishi, plotted several failed attacks on U.S. soil -- the botched Christmas 2009 attempt to blow up an American airliner heading to Detroit and a foiled 2010 attempt to send explosives to Chicago.

The former intelligence official said that with al-Awlaki gone, the branch "still retains a lot of capability."

But Richard Miniter, author of "Losing bin Laden," told Fox News that al-Awlaki's role will be "hard to replace."

"He understood American society very well. He understood American idioms and pop culture and how to appeal to Americans," he told Fox News. "It's very hard for them to replicate this."

Known as an eloquent preacher who spread English-language sermons on the Internet calling for "holy war" against the United States, al-Awlaki's role was to inspire and -- it is believed -- even directly recruit militants to carry out attacks.

He was not believed to be a key operational leader, but as a spokesman. His English skills gave him reach among second and third generation Muslims who may not speak Arabic.

Yemeni officials have said al-Awlaki had contacts with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the accused would-be Christmas plane bomber, who was in Yemen in 2009. They say the believe al-Awlaki met with the 23-year-old Nigerian, along with other Al Qaeda leaders, in Al Qaeda strongholds in the country in the weeks before the failed bombing.

In New York, the Pakistani-American man who pleaded guilty to the May 2010 Times Square car bombing attempt told interrogators he was "inspired" by al-Awlaki after making contact over the Internet.

Al-Awlaki also exchanged up to 20 emails with U.S. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, alleged killer of 13 people in the Nov. 5, 2009, rampage at Fort Hood. Hasan initiated the contacts, drawn by al-Awlaki's Internet sermons, and approached him for religious advice.

Al-Awlaki has said he didn't tell Hasan to carry out the shootings, but he later praised Hasan as a "hero" on his Web site for killing American soldiers who would be heading for Afghanistan or Iraq to fight Muslims. The cleric similarly said Abdulmutallab was his "student" but said he never told him to carry out the airline attack.

In a statement, the Yemeni government said al-Awlaki was "targeted and killed" 5 miles from the town of Khashef in the Province of al-Jawf. The town is located 87 miles east of the capital Sanaa.

The statement says the operation was launched on Friday around 9:55 a.m. It gave no other details.

The Yemeni Defense Ministry also reported the death, without elaborating, in a mobile phone SMS message.

Top U.S. counter terrorism adviser John Brennan says such cooperation with Yemen has improved since the political unrest there. Brennan said the Yemenis have been more willing to share information about the location of Al Qaeda targets, as a way to fight the Yemeni branch challenging them for power. Other U.S. officials say the Yemenis have also allowed the U.S. to fly more armed drone and aircraft missions over its territory than ever previously, trying to use U.S. military power to stay in power.

On Tuesday afternoon, in the Saint-Josse district of Brussels - a heavily immigrant-colonised neighbourhood - a 37-year-old Muslim was walking down the street with his burka-clad wife.

Wearing the burka has been illegal in Belgium since the middle of July, so two policemen approached them and proceeded to carry out an identity check on the woman.

The Muslim male objected vehemently to what they were doing. He struck one of the police officers and ordered his wife back to the house. Then he threatened to kill the police if they continued to pursue his wife.

The male Muslim was arrested and charged with "insubordination" and "wilfully causing injuries". His wife is going to be fined for wearing the burka.Read the full story here.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad Issa is pursuing this line of questions. But really, there ought need be no questions. Ford, essentially said the Obama Administration pulled the ads; calling them and reminding them that they had supported the bailout, even while refusing funds.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said in a letter to the Ford Motor Company on Thursday that he was "deeply concerned about undue political pressure exerted by the White House."

The House Oversight Committee chairman's letter comes on the heels of reports earlier this week that the company had pulled an ad critical of the auto bailout following a phone call with administration officials.

Ford denied Tuesday that the ad was removed because of political pressure, saying instead that it had simply been taken out of their ad rotation as scheduled.

"For those asking, the ad ran as part of a planned rotation and continues to run online. It contains the unscripted comments of a Ford owner. We supported emergency government support for our competitors and continue to support the decisions we made," Ford said in a statement posted to their Facebook page.

But Daniel Howes, a conservative columnist for The Detroit News, said that the advertisement was pulled "in response to White House questions."

In the ad, a man is asked why "buying American" was important to him when choosing a Ford pickup.

“I wasn’t going to buy another car that was bailed out by our government. I was going to buy from a manufacturer that’s standing on their own: win, lose or draw," he responds. "That’s what America is about, taking the chance to succeed and understanding when you fail that you gotta’ pick yourself up and go back to work. Ford is that company for me."

The auto bailout, which primarily benefited Ford competitors Chrysler and GM, was a cornerstone of the president's stimulus plan and supported by Ford. But conservatives have been increasingly critical of the auto bailout and stimulus as a whole as unemployment continues to lag.

In the letter to Ford, Issa asks for a full explanation of the company's decision to pull the advertisement and whether any current or former employee of the Obama administration, United Auto Workers, or Democratic Party contacted the company about the ad. Issa also asks whether the company temporarily pulled the ad from its YouTube page.

"Given the close relationship between American automobile manufacturers, workers unions and the U.S. Government in the wake of a series of loans, grants, and stimulus programs, accusations of White House interference in private business matters to support its own political and policy agendas are very serious issues and warrant a full airing of the facts," Issa wrote.

The White House has denied that it asked Ford to remove the ad, with White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer calling Howes's column "false."

Hundreds of Airmen and at least one other General applauded the actions of Air Force General William Shelton, who told a congressional committee back on September 15th that the White House attempted to get him to change his testimony about the potential threat to national security relative to the plans of a company called LightSquared.

Gen. Shelton's view was that if LightSquared was granted the bandwidth it was requesting, its technology would encroach upon the GPS bandwidth necessary for military communications operations.

Military.com is reporting that Shelton was given resounding support by his colleagues and hundreds of Airmen at a recent forum:

During a forum of senior officers at the Air Force Association conference in Washington on Wednesday, the moderator complimented Shelton for giving his "unvarnished" testimony before Congress.

The applause of hundreds of Airmen and others broke out, interrupted only when Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz interrupted to make a comment of his own.Schwartz acknowledged Shelton's candid testimony in the face of the purported White House pressure.

"Will Shelton, I salute your courage."

The White House has reportedly said it offered only guidance to Shelton. Meanwhile, the House Science, Space and Technology Committee has launched an investigation into contacts between administration officials and LightSquared, according to the website NextGov.com.

The committee's chairman Rep. Ralph Hall, R-Texas, and the six other Republican lawmakers allege the administration sought to muzzle and soften the testimony Shelton and other experts on how the planned multibillion-dollar network could interfere with GPS receivers, according to the report.

(DougRoss)
As one commenter noted after reading ABC News' reporting on EnergyGate and Solyndra:

There seems to be an inverse relationship between the president's popularity and the mainstream media's willingness to tell stories that need to be told. As Obama continues to slide in the polls, I'm sure we will find out all kinds of stuff that may have helped 2.5 years ago. While its too late now for everyone impacted by this administration's economic choices, there's hope that everyone will vote more responsibly next year... on both sides of the aisle.

Here's the reader's digest version:

• Kaiser's company, Solyndra, received a $535 million loan guarantee from DOE.

• Kaiser's company received the loan before DOE received final copies of outside reviews of the deal.

• Roos' law firm (the same firm Spinner's wife worked for) collected around millions from DOE-funded companies.

Put simply, if the Climatards are willing to waste billions enriching themselves in the name of green energy, then they can't really take the global warming scam seriously. In other words, the green tech movement no more believes in the global warming grift than you or I.

Turkey to Iran ....let's help each other get the Kurds

If there ARE any natural allies for the USA (and Israel) it’s the Kurds, victims of Iran, Turkey, Iraq for HUNDREDS OF YEARS of oppression, repression, and pogroms.

Israel, are you LISTENING? Erdogan and his islamist people are NOT untouchable or unreachable on their arrogant march. Iran IS AFRAID of internal, and genuine threats.

Turkey woos Iran for joint strike on Kurdish insurgents

ANKARA — Turkey is pressing Iran for a joint campaign against Kurdish rebels in Iraq.

Officials said the government of Prime Minister Recep Erdogan has urged Teheran to conduct a joint counter-insurgency operation to drive Kurdish rebels from the Kandil mountains in northern Iraq. Both Iran and Turkey have sent troops and combat platforms against the Kurdish Workers Party and its Iranian chapter, the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan, known as PJAK.

“We may undertake a joint effort in Kandil,” Erdogan said on Sept. 16.

Kurdish rebels said Iran and Turkey have been coordinating operations in Kandil since mid-2011. They said Ankara and Teheran have been in steady contact to prevent friendly fire incidents and ensure maximum effectiveness.

Iranian and Turkish officials have denied formal coordination in the campaign against the Kurdish rebels. Ankara has asserted that Teheran rejected Turkey’s offer for an intelligence exchange on the Kurdish rebel presence in northern Iraq.

“This is not onthe agenda at the moment,” Iranian ambassador to Turkey, Bahman Hosseinpour, said on Sept. 16.

For his part, Erdogan said he plans to meet Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the United Nations over the next few days. The prime minister said he would then fly to Iran for additional sessions to discuss strategy.

Over the last five years, Turkey has sought to bolster relations with Iran on military, political and security issues. But the two countries remain far apart on the future of Syria, particularly the future of President Bashar Assad.

“I wouldn’t say there are tensions with Iran,” Erdogan said. “But we have warned them that their stance is encouraging and spoiling the Assad administration.”

Israel should offer IMMEDIATELY to sent the Kurds sensor equipment which will allow them to evade air strikes, encrypted communication equipment to help in this endeavor, and hold over the heads of BOTH Iran and Turkey that it MIGHT be possible for Israeli aircraft OR ANTIAIRCRAFT MISSILE to be in position IF ASKED FOR HELP.

Syria DOES NOT have the means to stop the IAF from flying over Kurdistan. Nor the means to prevent, IF NEEDS BE the air dropping of Stingers to the Kurds, who could then carry them back into both Turkey and MOST ESPECIALLY, IRAN. There is certainly inherent danger in this course, but a world with Iran more concerned about itself and back on its heels, and more afraid of internal dangers is a better place. Turkey would think a few times before sending any FLOTILLAS.

Incirlik IMHO, is history if Turkey continues on the path they are on anyway.

But, of course, Obama will never allow US aid to flow through Israel for this purpose.

We cannot argue LOGIC, economic success, increased trade, or any other reward in this world against this theology. You CANNOT argue faith.

What we can argue ‘ideologically’, on the tactical front, is that if you accept, protect, and hide the Taliban, Haqqani, Al Qaeda or any of these maroons who will attempt to kill US troops or plan to get at the american people somehow, you are probably going to end up KILLING THE ENTIRETY OF YOUR FAMILY AND PROBABLY A LOT OF YOUR VILLAGE AND IT WILL HAPPEN WITH NO WARNING FROM ABOVE.

Bill Gertz, Geostrategy Direct:

Pentagon official: U.S. woefully inadequate in critical information war

New indications surfaced last week that the U.S. government’s efforts to wage ideological warfare against Islamist extremism is failing.

A senior Pentagon official, Jake Schaffner, said during a security conference, that the Pentagon is not doing enough to train its leaders to wage ideological war.

Schaffner said the Pentagon has been unable to effectively integrate information operations into its military operations. “We’ve been fighting that fight for quite awhile now,” he said of the efforts to use more ideological warfare than kinetic warfare.

“My personal opinion is that so far my department has gotten the lanes thoroughly and completely f’d up when preparing to actually engage military operations and information operations,” Schaffner said.

Schaffner said a professional cadre of information warfare officers is needed who understand information warfare and how it is used. He said the function should not simply be added on to combat arms but must more closely be integrated with how the military fights.

“When the combatant commander goes out there now, I think the actual dominant environment in which they are operating is an information environment,” Schaffner said.

Schaffner said better training of military leaders is needed to stress the use of information as a key strategic weapons.

“This is a game where our commanders are trying to defeat the thought processes of foreign commanders,” Schaffner said. “We’re not trying to defeat their tank battalions or air squadrons. This is a leader-on-leader fight. And we’re not training our leaders to fight in this realm right now. We re training them how to defeat other peoples’ tools, not how to defeat their minds.”

Critics of the Pentagon’s military strategy have said the U.S. military, especially in the war on terrorism, has failed to develop a counter ideology to Islamist extremism.

Schaffner, an official in the office of the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, also said the Pentagon is more successful in using deception operations against closed societies like China and Iran and is careful to avoid “blowback” disinformation that reaches U.S. society.

“Yes, we do deception,” he said, noting that deception operations seek to influence the actions of foreign states or leaders and are more successful in closed societies like China, Iran, Syria and Egypt where information is tightly controlled by the state in an effort to control populations.

No specifics of current deception operations were revealed, but public discussion of what Mr. Schaffner termed “the art of deception” is very unusual.

One past deception was the 1967 operation in Vietnam using F-4 jets disguised as F-105s to lure Vietnamese MiG-21s into combat.

Police states are more difficult places to set up deception programs but generally provide an easier environment for deception to succeed. “They’ve caused the population to expect information to be presented in a certain way, certain formats, that certain words be used, certain types of presentations and so it s very easy to follow along with that,” Schaffner said.

If an operation can be set up, “then the police state that is trying to protect itself is actually setting up many of its people to be deceived by you,” Mr. Schaffner said.

In cyberspace, Schaffner said, networks can be defended better using deception. He recalled meeting a group of 30 computer hackers who revealed about 20 types of online responses from targeted Web sites that would prompt them to “simply just turn around and go away” because the system would not respond.

He implied that by deceptively using such signs on networks, defenders can dissuade hackers from attacks.

Another deception specialist, Neil Rowe, a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School, told the conference sponsored by the Association of the Old Crows, an electronic warfare group, that false-error messages can be programmed on computers to pop up in response to outside intruders as a way deception can enhance network defenses. Another way is to “wrap” software applications in security software so that targeted computers slow down when an outsider gets inside or improperly tries to access a network through it.

How much did Obama screw it up? He's in a dead heat w RON PAUL in FL

The Ron Paul who actually believes the USA can avoid committing acts overseas?

The Ron Paul who defends the group that formally accused Dwight Eisenhower of being an agent of the communists of the USSR (The John Birch Society)?

In a dead heat with the current prez?

There are moments when the frustration and anger of the american people break the surface. THIS IS THAT MOMENT.

Beltway Confidential:

Public Policy Polling, a Democratic-leaning polling firm,shows Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, and former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., trailing President Obama by a mere one point in their latest poll of Florida voters. Obama has a 56 percent disapproval rating in the swing state.

PPP shows Paul trailing Obama 45-44 in a hypothetical general election match-up, while Romney lags Obama by the same margin, 46-45. Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas, has a 7 point deficit on the president, 50-43 - likely because 63% of voters polled disagree with his characterization of Social Security as a Ponzi scheme.

Although it’s a small sample he leads Perry by an 82-2 margin and Romney by a 78-11 spread with them. His overall approval with Jewish voters is 76/20 and specifically on the issue of Israel he’s at 61/31 with Jews.

It’s a small sample indeed: Only 476 “Florida voters” overall, of whom 5 percent identified themselves as Jewish. Is it significant? Possibly, because the same polling company went into NY-9 before Republican Bob Turner won there. In that poll, 36 percent of voters were Jewish, and only 26 percent of them had a favorable opinion of Obama. Among Jewish voters, Perry led Obama by 4 points; Romney led him by 14. Here’s a little evidence, at long last, for the Democrats’ maybe-it’s-not-so-bad excuse for NY-9: The theory that the orthodox Jews and recent immigrants in that district were more right-wing than Jewish voters in other parts of the country.

By the way, 5% of 476 = 24 voters. Therefore based on TWENTY JEWISH LIKELY VOTERS, these deniers of reality are hoping against hope Jewish voters in Florida still love their guy vs Perry an OUTRIGHT evangelical christian who COULD BE painted as cavorting with other evangelicals who don’t love the jews.. Salon points out that 18 jewish voters approve of Obama (although they are too afraid to actually use arithmetic to tell you that).

The Parallel Government
Of The Entire World

All of us, every single man, woman, and child on the face of the Earth were born with the same unalienable rights; to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And, if the governments of the world can't get that through their thick skulls, then, regime change will be necessary.

The Untold Story of Muslim Opinions & Demographics

Infidel Babe Of The Week
Moran Atias - TYRANT

IBA Quote of the Week.

"The tank, the B-52, the fighter-bomber, the state-controlled police and military are the weapons of dictatorship. The rifle is the weapon of democracy. Not for nothing was the revolver called an "equalizer." Egalite implies liberte. And always will. Let us hope our weapons are never needed — but do not forget what the common people of this nation knew when they demanded the Bill of Rights: An armed citizenry is the first defense, the best defense, and the final defense against tyranny."

"An Islamic regime must be serious in every field," explained Ayatollah Khomeini. "There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humour in Islam. There is no fun in Islam."

****************

"I want to be very, very clear, however: I understand and agree with the analysis of the problem. There is an imminent threat. It manifested itself on 9/11. It's real and grave. It is as serious a threat as Stalinism and National Socialism were. Let's not pretend it isn't."~~~~~Bono~~~~~